Hangovers

• Colleen Lindsay on this week’s YA query cliches: "Vampire spelled Vampyre, Wompyre, Vompyre, or any other way." Hee. (See also, unrelated, her remembrance of Sir Arthur Clarke, R.I.P. Matt Cheney has a good post too.)
• Jeff Ford compiles a soundtrack for The Shadow Year over at largehearted boy. (Via Jeff.)
• Kassia plugs books I love on the radio. Yay! And she also has a typically great, thoughtful post about how teenagers interact with the Web and how publishers are sucking at using new media.
• Justine had a great post about the writing biz and luck the other day, which reminded me of a great old Wordplay column by Frank Darabont where he talks about making your own luck. The Happiness Project has a timely post on the very same subject.
• Colleen has a nice post following on Barack Obama’s AMAZING speech about race.
• An interview with Adam Rex, of the fabulous, Cybils-winning The True Meaning of Smekday.
• Austin Kleon went to a q and a session with David Simon and did a great write-up. But this resulting cartoon is why Austin’s a mad genius:

  

• Erik Sofge questions the moral universe at the heart of Dungeons and Dragons. I can’t speak to his main point, but I will say that the whole Focus on Killing Stuff thing is a big part of why I find so many video games disappointing.
• Perhaps less controversially, Charlie Stross roles up D&D characters for the presidential contenders.
• Pub owner bans "Danny Boy" for the month. Good move!
• An interesting take on the literary fraud phenomenon. And Liz B has one too, coining the apt term "Mary Sue Memoirs."
• Justine Musk has a good post on some reasons why Hollywood produces so much retread crap.
• The Clarke Award shortlist is announced; dead excited to see The Carhullan Army get some love and a YA novel included. Love Sarah Hall’s reaction in the Guardian. Also, that the Guardian has reactions!
• Evil Monkey’s Beginner Writing Tips.

• Yep, it’s spring in Kentucky. We’re having a snowstorm, freakishly, and then I’m sure it’ll be in the 50s and sunny forever, starting in the middle of next week. We did our spring cleaning yesterday in preparation (stacks of books shelved or cast aside for donation!), so the house is sparkly nice for my weekend of hibernation and thesising.
• Speaking of which, as soon as it stops snowing I need to get to a bookstore, because reading this New Yorker piece about Gossip Girl what do I discover? There’s an omniscient narrator. Now, it’s probably arguable how realistic these books actually are, but there’s no magic to speak of and they’re by an American* and so for my purposes? Genius.
• Jeff Ford’s The Shadow Year, which I can’t wait to read, is apparently already in stores. It’s also an April Booksense pick. Yay!
• The fabulous Cassandra Clare gets interviewed by Cynthia Leitich Smith.
• Libba Bray is smart on fanfic.
• Why teen girls love vampires. I’ll admit it–I was a vampire fiction whore when I was a teen. Those were my (un)guilty pleasure books, so I’m not at all surprised by this "trend."
• Hot Slayer on Slayer action.
• Jeff VanderMeer interviews Toby Barlow in free verse. I’ve got to get my hands on a copy of Sharp Teeth.

*Yep, I realize there’s a string of ghostwriters. I only need concern myself with the first one and the convention observed throughout, since this is intended to bolster a side point.

• The fabulous Cynthia Leitich Smith interviews my favorite scholar, Leonard S. Marcus, who has turned out a host of amazing books about the history and art of children’s literature, including Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom (he has a great compilation of commentary about her in the current Horn Book issue, btw), The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy, and Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon, to name a tiny sampling of my favorites (read: the ones I’ve read so far).
• When the news stings, Matt Ruff suggests tiny piggies!
• The Stranger has a former bookseller’s thoughts on book thievery, and books most frequently stolen. (Via Scott Edelman.)
• Kids and lying.
• Carrie Jones takes her recent discussion of writing characters with disabilities to the Fangs, Fur & Fey community on LJ; see also a follow-up post on writing mental illness.
• Jules on David Almond’s My Dad’s a Birdman, which is on my ever-growing stack.
• io9 has a good, trivia-filled tribute post on Gary Gygax, the Dungeons and Dragons creator who passed on this week. I am utterly charmed by all the personal stories everywhere about how D&D changed people’s lives; keep it up.
• Ghostbusters! (Via Jenny D.) Also known as the movie most quoted in my daily life.
• Michael Chabon has a fun essay in the New Yorker about the clothe de superhero.
• NPR on Harriet the Spy. (Via Stephany Aulenback.)

• Spring is here! Yay!
• Blake Nelson interviews Gus Van Sant about Paranoid Park. (Hat tip to Micol.)
• Molly Gloss’s amazing The Hearts of Horses gets some much-deserved love from NPR. I loved this book so much. (Thanks to Gavin.)
• Marina Warner on Beckett and foreign languages. (Via Jenny D.)
• ee cummings on Krazy Kat at Austin’s.
• Jeff VanderMeer interviews Kage Baker at Clarkesworld.
• i09 asks what people look for in science fiction via poll; none of the answers were mine (er, something awesome), but interesting anyway.
• "The King of Sentences," Jonathan Lethem.
• Liz Hand looks–as we all should–to T.H. White’s The Once and Future King for wisdom on getting through winter. This must be why I’ve been craving nothing but documentaries and science/history/random podcasts lately. Finally, our weather has broken, at least for the moment.
• "Rebecca Drysdale is a Time Traveling Lesbian." (Via Tacithydra.)
• Everyone should have real art: a profile of Jen Bekman in the NYT. (Via the one and most fabulous Lauren.)
• Go see Cecil host The Lit Thing Wednesday evening in the city of angels.
• The lovely and talented and wonderful Carolyn Kellogg aka Pinky is now also blogging for Jacket Copy, the LA Times book blog. Check it out.
• Know thy planets: My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants.
• Samantha Hunt writes napkin fiction.
• Wiscon! It’ll be here before you know it. I’ve expressed interest in a scary number of panels and decided not to do a reading this year. See you there?
• See Oscar-winning animated shorts. (Via Karen.)
• Pretty pittures. Me want to go on safari. This will have to do for now.
• Sara Ryan recommends Veda Hille’s new album "This Riot Life."
• If you missed it, the YA Agony Awards stuff is terribly amusing.
• Starship Sofa is one of the podcasts I’ve been checking out; you might like it too.
• Seriously tardy link: Ethan Clark, author of Leaning With Intent to Fall, a book on bike punk culture, guest blogged on Powell’s. His posts are worth going back to.
• Gavin rediscovers Iron Maiden. Ah, simpler times.
• I’m really loving the blog Living Small (about just what it sounds like and which fills me with admiration and not guilt).
• See also: the tiny Spite House.
• Titlepage.tv debuts today; I’m curious to see what it’s all about. It’s supposed to be "a new kind of interview show," hosted by Daniel Menaker.
• There are more links, but I will stop now.

• Me have teeny cold developing.
• The Taos Toolbox is a two-week master class writer’s workshop in lovely New Mexico, being held June 8-21; the instructors are Walter Jon Williams and Kelly Link, with special lecturer Stephen Donaldson. Check it out if you’re so inclined.
• Note to self: Purchase Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume.
• Chance on the Norton Award jury additions. Nice to see Smekday getting some more love.
• A post including some good stuff from Karen Joy Fowler on books at the NBCC blog. Wit’s End is SOOOO good. More on that once I’ve finished it. (Via Gavin.)
• The WashPost visits this year’s toy expo.
• Brand placement in books; I’m happy to see Cathy’s Book and the sequel losing that jive.
• Niall on Alice in Sunderland.
• An excellent post about Lewis Hyde on fair use and copyright issues.
• Brian Evenson has written an Aliens novel. (Via Jeff.)
• Dave Elzey on why the shuffle mode on your iPod is dadaist.
• F&SF has a blog.
• Over at the Vermont College alum blog, current student Andy Sherrod is very smart about boys and reading. He did his critical thesis on the topic and knows it inside and out.
• CAAF visits the Biltmore library, and is somewhat frustrated by the lack of access to, y’know, the books.

• The Guardian on women writing fantasy. (Why are there never articles like this in U.S. literary coverage?)
• Frozen Niagara Falls.
• Zombie poems is everywhere. Some faves: Libba Bray’s, Holly Black’s (Spiderwick was great, btw!), Justine Larbalestier’s, Cassie Clare’s, and Cecil Castellucci’s. Brought to you by the brain of Maureen Johnson (which I’m sure would be very tasty).
• Mekons video!
• Musical dinosaurs, white stags, and time machines, oh my. (Via Dave.)
• Lizzie Skurnick tells The Atlantic to Knock It Off.
• 10 superpowers available now (via somebody!).
• SF Signal asks opinions on why short fiction matters from some of SFF’s most prominent editors.
• Alison Morris on sales reps.
• And now back to the critical thesis…

• All happy things.
• Ben is funny.
• The lovely story behind Delia Sherman’s short story "Gift From a Spring," in the new issue of Realms of Fantasy.
• In the old days, even short story writing was lucrative enough to merit gimcrackery classified ads.
• Iain Banks on writing, which he finds easy. I’m going to eat his brain.
• Paul Witcover highly recommends J.M. McDermott’s Last Dragon, adding to the buzz for the new Wizards of the Coast Discoveries series.
• Jeff VanderMeer has some kid feedback on How to Raise and Keep a Dragon by Joe Nigg. Soooo good. A sample: I am five years old. I want a Standard Western Dragon. I also want the Mushussu Dragon. I want the Piasa Dragon and the Dragon of India. Where can I get them? Can I have a dragon? That is it.
• Micol gets interviewed.
• Pinky has a favorite in the Amazon breakthrough novel contest. Ballot stuffing encouraged.
• Angela Carter swanned over in the L.A. Times.

• It’s shaping up to be a busy week and there’s the dreaded critical thesis and the novel revision and etc. going on too. So, yeah, still behind on email. All you in voting states, get out the vote.
• Claire Light is hosting the Carl Brandon Society’s new recommended reading list of speculative fiction by black authors, in honor of Black History Month.
• Jeff VanderMeer talks to Greg Frost about Shadowbridge (including some reaction to the recent John Clute review).
• Go wish the InKY Reading Series a happy fourth birthday on Friday night; Frank X Walker, Janna McMahan, and Emily Bonden will read, with music provided by Joe Manning.
• The latest issue of Lone Star Stories is live, featuring new fiction by Ekaterina Sedia and Tim Pratt and poetry by Liz Hand.
• Leila Roy loves Vermont College-alum Liz Gallagher’s debut, The Opposite of Invisible. It’s sitting very near the top of my stack of Books to Read as Soon as the CT Draft is Done (right beneath Wit’s End and The Shadow Year and a whole bunch of Tiptree stuff).
• Austin illustrates Lewis Hyde’s The Gift.
• Updated: Dana’s inspirational voting message. More, please.

• Beverly Cleary at 91.
• And another great: Judy Blume at the Telegraph. (Check out the photo; she is the Tina Turner of YA.)
• Forgotten novelist Theodora Keogh. (Via Maud.)
• A piece on cinematographer (and Ingmar Bergman collaborator) Gunnar Fischer.
• Why books take so long to come out.
• Charles Simic gets the Solomon treatment; baiting him on the burglary at Robert Frost’s house: Yes, the kids are accused of burning his furniture for heat and leaving puddles of vomit on the living-room floor. Do you see that as any kind of symbol of where American culture is now? No. In Frost’s day, too, awful things went on in the countryside. There were nasty things happening in remote villages. There’s that poem where there is the skeleton of the ex-lover of the mistress of the house in the attic.